Back from a long summer break. What a joy to prepare food outside! This summer was beautiful for that. Together with my family we went to the mountains in the Alps and I spent 4 weeks living outside on several campsites. The perfect opportunity to prepare easy to make raw food dishes. Porridges for the morning, a great breakfast for an active day of walking. Salads and dressings, pasta tomato sauce for the evening, smoothies to take with me on a walking day. With lots of fresh local ingredients, some things that I brought with me and just a bit of preparation.It shows that raw food can really be very simple as well! I am happy to share a couple of my favorite recipes here.
One note, I did bring my small blender on the camping trip. Normally it would not be my first camping gear to bring but when eating this type of food it really helps to make nice freshly made dishes. You just need to find an electricty plug somewhere:). This simple blender is not costly and does the job.
Morning porridge with quinoa or millet/amaranth and a ‘milk’of hemp/ pumpkin/sunflower seeds
Ingredients:
- Hemp seeds
- Pumpkin and/or sunflower seeds (soaked and dehydrated)
- Spices & superfood (optional): 1/2 tsp cinnamon, a bit of cardamon and nutmeg, a small piece of fresh turmeric or a bit of powder, 1 TBS coconut sugar, himalayan salt, fresh ginger, cayenne, maca and/or lucuma. I add the spices for taste but also to add warming elements to my breakfast which makes it balanced with the fruits.
- Quinoa, amaranth or millet (soaked the night before, rinsed and cooked in the morning)
- Buckwheat crunches (soaked, sprouted and dehydrated) and/or dried grated coconut- optional
- To make the ‘milk’ take 1/4 cup of a mix of hemp seeds and pumpkin and/or sunflowerseeds with 2 cups of water and all the spices, sweetener and optional superfoods’and blend the mixture well. This is enough for 2 breakfasts. You can keep half in a glass pot for the next morning.
- Take 1/2 of the ‘milk and make this warm, together with the cooked quinoa (or a mixture of amaranth and millet) and add some fruits if you like. I like to add 1/2 banana, some dried fruits and some summer fruits such as nectarine and plum.
- In the bowl you can add some buckwheat crunches, dried grated coconut and coconut oil.
The great thing of this recipe is the variation you can bring every day by different tastes and fruits you add. I love my comforting warm breakfast, even on hot summer mornings!
Marinara pasta sauce
Ingredients:
- 1/2 Cup of sun-dried tomatoes covered in a little bit of water to make soft (I made these at home and took them with me but you can buy them as well)
- 1 fresh tomato, chopped
- basil leaves and parsley
- small hand of almonds (soaked and dehydrated)
- a bit of himalayan salt
- olive oil
- optional: 1 TBS nutritional yeast, cayenne pepper, oregano, za’atar, dulse flakes (or small pieces of nori paper or some miso paste). You can also some onion. It is healthy and adds taste but since I cannot digest onion well I leave it out of all my dishes.
Put everything toegther in the blender and mix. See if it needs some extra water or oil.
The fun thing with preparing food on the camp site is to simply work with the ingredients you have. I do bring some spices and herbs from home such as za átar (a mixture of thyme, sesame seeds and sumac), oregano, cayenne, nutritional yeast (a protein and source of vit B with a ‘cheesy’ taste). In this recipe most important is thee fresh and dried tomatoes, the fresh herbs, a handful of almonds to make it creamy and a bit of olive oil. You can play around with the dried spices and herbs. I ate the sauce on top of quinoa paste together with arugula. At home I often make it with spiralized vegetables (zucchini, carrot, red beets)
Red Bell Pepper dressing
Ingredients:
- 1 bell pepper and 1-2 carrots (depending on the size)
- piece of fresh ginger
- 1 TBS coconut sugar
- 1 TBS of apple cider vinegar or 2 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp high mineral salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- optional: irish moss paste
Blend everything into a nice and creamy sauce. I love this dressing in many different ways! It is great for salad but also delicious on a cracker with avocado or on time of cooked quinoa.
Banana- almond- spirulina drink
Ingredients:
- 1-2 Cups of coconut water (bought it at the supermarket in France). It is great for hydration but if you don’t have, you can use water as well
- a bit of almonds or other nuts
- 1-2 bananas
- 1 TBS spirulina
- 2 TBS carob and/or cacao powder
- a bit of salt
- optional: a drop of mint essence (gives it a beautiful fresh taste), some raw cacao nibs put last for extra texture)
Just blend everything together and you have the perfect drink to take with you on a long day. On this drink I walked a long day in the mountains (climbing 700 meters and back) and don’t need anything else except some water.
I am not a big user of superfoods though I believe some ingredients are very beneficial. I do love to use spirulina if it is good quality since it is highly nutritious and superrich in minerals and vitamin B which is great for vegans. I found this beautiful spirulina in a farm very close to the camp site. I know the fresh spirulina from the months I spent in Bali and was happily surprised to see a farm in France. I visited the farm and I am impressed by the production process and the quality of this spirulina. I had a chance to see the spirulina under the microscope and it is amazing to see the spiralized structure of the cells! It is one of the best spirulina I have tasted, so much better (and it seems more healthy) than the dried options. You can order online: http://www.spiruli.net/
I wish you fun in making these recipes. It can be new and a bit of time consuming in the beginning but you will see it becomes a second nature the more you prepare this food. You are welkcome to contact me if you have questions.
Wishing you love and health!
